Bud Light Tag 2010 Around Ireland

As Irish rugby grows ever more in popularity, Bud Light Tag is enjoying an ever increasing profile as teams get set for the season ahead with new venues opening up throughout Ireland. In a series of articles, we take a look at Bud Light Tag in each province, starting with Leinster

With the boom in Bud Light Tag over the past years, new rugby clubs have joined the list of venues adding to the choice of quality facilities for teams to enjoy over the summer.

Teams currently registering at Bud Light Tag venues, not just in Leinster but all over Ireland, are also qualifying for this year's competition draw where there are VIP match day tickets and invites to the official IRFU post-match team reception to be won.

This means about 3,400 players will pass through the gates of these clubs weekly during a time when the clubs would otherwise be very quiet. St. Mary's College/Templeogue College will also be the venue for the 2010 Bud Light Tag All-Ireland Open Championship taking place on a date soon to be announced.

The sunny South East is gearing up for the summer season with Enniscorthy RFC looking forward to its third year as a Bud Light Tag venue. With comedy nights, quiz nights and the highly successful festival day mid-season all proving big hits with Enniscorthy's tag teams and their supporters.

Mullingar RFC promises another summer of action-packed evenings in the Cullion club with leagues increasing in size for the third year running, while over in the Royal County, players from all around the area will descend upon Navan RFC as it also prepares for the summer ahead again.

Back in Dublin, Suttonians RFC enjoyed the 2009 season, hosting almost double the amount of teams from their previous years with Bud Light Tag.

Tallaght RFC will be spreading the tag word even further around south Dublin as they prepare a busy summer of leagues and post-match events.

Old Belvedere on Anglesea Road in the heart of Dublin 4 is filling up rapidly as always and not only the mixed leagues but the veteran players of 33 years and over will no doubt be ready for another summer against opposition new and old at this very popular venue.

The aim of Bud Light Tag, the IRFU's official Tag Rugby programme is to provide a non-contact form of rugby for men and women of all abilities to be played at first-class rugby facilities, officiated by IRFU-trained referees and professionally organised by the governing body of rugby in Ireland.

Looking forward to facing England on Sunday, Ireland winger Tommy Bowe said: "We've trained very well this week, we're really excited about the game. It's about going out there and doing whatever we can to get ourselves that win."

Second row Devin Toner previews Ireland's crunch RBS 6 Nations clash with England, saying: "It's a pretty formidable English pack. Attwood and Kruis have played fantastically well. They're well drilled and focused and their scrum and lineout are very good."

Looking forward to facing England this weekend, Ireland back rower Sean O'Brien said: "It's obviously exciting, but it's one game at a time. I don't think there's any more pressure on us than in the first two games. That's the way you have to look at it."

Irish Rugby TV sat down with Ireland Under-20 scrum coach John Fogarty to talk about the U-20 Six Nations so far and Friday's clash with England at Donnybrook. Tickets are on sale on www.ticketmaster.ie.

Shane Byrne and Malcolm O'Kelly preview the Ireland v England Legends match which takes place at Donnybrook this coming Saturday (kick-off 7.30pm). Tickets are available from www.ticketmaster.ie. All proceeds from the game will go to support the IRFU Charitable Trust and the RFU All Schools Charity.

Watch highlights from the Ireland team announcement press conference as Joe Schmidt reveals the team to play France. Peter O'Mahony says it is good to 'have some big figures back' for Saturday's clash.